In Depth: Having it All at Havasu

Western Arizona has been inundated with change, as cities and towns along the
Colorado River grow with increasing tourism and retirement dollars.
An influx of new money has brought power recreational users, such as
ORV riders and personal watercraft enthusiasts, to previously mellow
desert towns like Parker, Topock, and Hope. Many residents are struggling
to hold on to a slower pace of life, which includes preserving open
space in the face of development pressures that can alter community
history on the land.

But residents of western Arizona are ideally situated to embrace a proposal
put forth by the Arizona Wilderness Coalition that could provide lasting
safeguards for western Arizona heritage and its desert grandeur—a pitch
for more than 180,000 acres of Wilderness, including spectacular areas
on Crossman Peak, the Buckskin Mountains, Planet Peak, and Mohave Wash.

The population of western Arizona has nearly doubled since these lands were
studied as part of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Wilderness Inventory
submitted for the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990.

Lake Havasu, as seen from Crossman Peak. Photo by Jay Krienitz.

The Coalition has evaluated these public lands—currently managed by the
BLM Lake Havasu Field Office—and found that they contain outstanding
wilderness characteristics. AWC has entered into the BLM’s public participation
process for Lake Havasu to provide a wilderness alternative within the
public land use decision-making process.

“The fact is, these lands are Wilderness already,” says AWC Western Deserts
Regional Coordinator Jay Krienitz. “We are simply trying to give them
the protection that will help preserve the way of life that has always
existed out here. People who ride responsibly will see that favorite
ORV areas and accessible wilderness vistas are still available to the
local population.”

In assessing the variety of areas now part of the AWC proposal, Krienitz
and his team of wilderness inventory volunteers documented that the
most physical impacts to the land were near or just outside of towns.
This suggests that boundaries for recreational uses need to be put in
place to prevent further off-road damage to the fragile desert ecosystems
that surround towns like Parker, Kingman, and Lake Havasu City.

Parker, for example, holds a large off-road vehicle event—the Parker 400—in
an area between two already-designated wilderness areas, the Gibraltar
Mountains Wilderness and East Cactus Plain Wilderness, the southern
boundary near the Swansea Wilderness, and north of Planet Peak proposed
area. After-race partying often results in new trails and illegal corridors
where ORV riders have camped and spent the day.

“As many desert lovers know, the ecology here is fragile and unique,” says
Krienitz. “The number of different species in the Sonoran Desert may
be one of the highest in the world. The areas the AWC is proposing will
help to keep the natural balance of these ecosystems intact. Recent
studies show that roads and ORV destruction may be the single-largest
threat to sensitive desert lands.”

The AWC recently attended scoping meetings in several of the towns that
abut the proposed wilderness, in effort to educate the citizens about
the benefits of wilderness to local economies and to future generations.
The response was less than welcoming.

“The ORV community has become a political force to be reckoned with and is
dominating public land meetings in western Arizona,” says Krienitz.
“Many of them see no harm in driving off established or designated routes
and roads.”

Krienitz has seen comments that flowed forth from the first round of public meetings
at the BLM’s Lake Havasu Field Office in February, many of which state
that it is their “right” to travel into the heart of wild places that
are not yet designated as Wilderness. “The BLM is obligated to mitigate
this problem, as they are legally required to prevent unnecessary or
undue degradation of lands considered for wilderness designation,” says
Krienitz.

The AWC is providing the BLM with a detailed narrative that describes the
wilderness characteristics of the areas and significantly enhances prior
BLM inventories. Krienitz is providing maps and photographic evidence
and itemizing the species and recreational values of the areas.

The results of AWC’s hard work will be rewarded in the fall, when the BLM
presents the AWC wilderness proposal as one of its alternatives for
the public to support at the next round of public meetings in late
2003. The AWC will need overwhelming support for its proposal to
staunchly defeat the ORV contingent that has carved a user niche for
itself into western Arizona’s economy. Stay tuned!

PLAN AHEAD!
Make your spring and early summer outdoor plans here! Visit our comprehensive
list of day outings, inventory trips, meetings, and upcoming AWC events for
the latest in wilderness “happenings” around the state. Read
more…

DID YOU KNOW…?The amount of saguaro cacti in Ironwood forest National
Monument--pictured above, and one of Arizona's newest public lands--actually
outnumber the saguaros protected in Saguaro National Park outside of Tucson.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE…
Springtime in the desert is not unlike the colorful burst of oranges, reds,
and yellows that sets New England hills and towns aflame in autumn. Check out
our list of the best places to find wildlflowers
in Arizona!

The Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, the third
largest national wildlife refuge in the lower 48 states, is an important sanctuary
for a wide array of desert life, including wildflowers. It was established in
1939, primarily to protect desert bighorn sheep.
Adjacent to it is the Barry M. Goldwater Range, also a magnificent wildflower
destination.
Photo: Jack Dykinga